Does follow-up loss reflect poor outcome?

Loss of follow-up information regarding the adjustment of people who have received mental health services has been a troublesome problem when comparing the effectiveness of different treatment programs. The primary concern has been that a low response rate may indicate that patients are adjusting poorly. If this were true, then the treatment effectiveness of programs having low follow-up response rates would be overestimated. The present study compares the follow-up adjustment of patients on whom information was obtained by mail with the adjustment of mail nonresponders who were later interviewed by phone. The findings indicate that the posthospital adjustment of patients was not a significant factor in determining whether or not mailed follow-up questionnaires were returned. Rather, low response rates were primarily a function of data collector style and motivation level of those receiving mailed questionnaires.